BTEC National Diploma in Business

Unit 1: Exploring Business Activity – Induction Assignment

Oxfam is a non profit organisation and was first set up in England, 1942. It was created by a small group of Quakers, followers of Christ, and their main target at the time was to reduce the frequency of famine and to aid those in need. Although Oxfam set out originally to reduce famine they now strive on opening up world markets and providing fair trade to third world countries. To date, Oxfam is currently the leading international non-governmental organisation (NGO) and have an excellent reputation in the delivery of aid and development work. Millions of people donate to Oxfam every year - without this hefty amount of funding they receive they wouldn’t be able to put ideas into action. It is because of this that it is said to be ‘owned by everyone’.

Oxfam is a charity which is also the leading non-governmental organisation to date. It consists of 13 organisations working with over 3,000 partners in more than 100 countries around the globe. In 2008 Oxfam GB worked with over 20,000 volunteers in shops across the UK, raising £17.1 million for Oxfam's programme work Oxfam rely on the public to donate goods for free; they market to all age groups however it is perceived to be for the older generation and not for the teenage trendy market. Oxfam doesn’t have competitors in a selling sense however they do need to earn the publics trust by putting their aims into action. There is rivalry between other charity organisations such as ‘help the aged’ to receive the items and donations from the public and this relies so much on marketing their goals and what they will do with the proceeds. There is no bought in stock as all the items are donated but the pricing for re-sale of most items are reasonable. With this in mind Oxfam has become a popular place to find bargain buys for re-sale. At Oxfam all the profits generated from sales within store and online/postal donations all go towards different projects to help a cause such as the one fighting climate change which is happening at the moment. In the odd event where there is money left over from the project it is re-invested in different projects or put back into the company to fund for land rent, website production and general store improvements. The owners don’t receive any financial gain out of the organisation. Oxfam is still thriving in business as it has done so much for third world countries such as the East Africa food crisis where 10 million people were given sufficient food and water. It’s these successful projects that build the trust and faith of the public with Oxfam and encourage them to donate goods and money knowing it will be put to good use. Oxfam’s main aim is to work with others to overcome poverty and suffering. The key people in Oxfam is in fact everyone who donates money or items – without them Oxfam wouldn’t be where it is today. That said, the key people can also be identified as the group of Quakers who invested their own money to start this charity. Their names however are not flaunted across everywhere to gain public status as that is not the reason they created Oxfam. The activities of Oxfam, such as selling on second hand goods, help them to meet their aims and objectives by being able to fund for food, water, medical aid, school books, toilets, mosquito nets and much more in third world countries. This helps towards their aim of overcoming poverty and suffering.

Oxfam as a whole, in my opinion, is a great inspiration to people all over the world to set out and do something good that can change lives. They are very laid back in store and you can knock the price down by a pound or two and the staff there, in my experience, have always been very welcoming. Oxfam however is seen to be more for the older generation and if a young teenager like myself was caught in there it would be a social status singer and wouldn’t be considered ‘cool’. The reason for this is probably because the items there are second hand, cheap and the stereotype is that second hand stores are ‘tatty’. In order to overcome this stereotype Oxfam should look into advertising and re-marketing their presentation and maybe their staff to connect with the younger generation. This will then result in more customers but most importantly more funding towards Oxfam’s aim of overcoming poverty and suffering.

John Lewis was originally a single shop created 1864 in Oxford Street. As time went by this private business expanded and in 1937 John Lewis’ son, John Spedan Lewis, sealed a deal to form a partnership with the well known company Waitrose. It’s this deal that is that is said to be a ‘visionary and successful way of doing business’. This new partnership gave John Lewis the funding and attention to move on for a sustainable future in business for all of their partners, employees and most of all the customers who they wish to give the best possible service, flair and fairness. John Lewis have various trustees that can take care of money or assets which keeps the business secure.

The John Lewis Partnership consists of 69,000 permanent staff who own 27 John Lewis department stores, 215 Waitrose supermarkets, an online and catalogue business, johnlewis.com, a direct services company, Greenbee, a production unit and a farm with a turnover of nearly £6.9 billion last year. The John Lewis Partnership’s aim is to achieve a dedication to serving customers with flair and fairness. The John Lewis Partnership is spread internationally across the world. John Lewis itself sell a vast range of products from; home and garden, electrical appliances; technology which includes gaming, telecommunication and home entertainment; John Lewis also cover sports and leisure, clothing for men, women and children, a wide range of beauty products and a lot of gifts for special occasions such as Halloween, Weddings and Anniversaries. These are just a few of the main categories John Lewis deals in and within each category there are many sub categories which cover almost everything. John Lewis is popular amongst the middle class market for its high quality goods and branded designer items. They have many competitors in the retail industry, mainly with other department stores, and always try to keep their prices competitive. Current competitors include; Marshall Ward – who cover all the same categories; Debenhams with 140 stores in the UK and dubbed ‘The UK’s Leading Department Store’ and Argos who own 700 stores throughout the UK and Republic Of Ireland. There are ample amount of competitors in this department store market all fighting for customers and working out ways on how to keep them coming back to their store rather than someone else’s. At the same time of trying to stay competitive John Lewis’ market mostly to the middle class and charge accordingly with the high quality and branded items. John Lewis’ individual unaudited financial statement for the half year up to the 1st August 2009 saw a fall of 2.9% on its original gross profit of £1.21bn. That’s a loss of £35.8m. Although this may look bad John Lewis is still making a significant amount of profit however they will need to establish what is causing this decrease of profits – it could be the recession or just lack of interest from customers. John Lewis is still in business due to its well thought through partnerships which help pull it through the tough times like the current recession. According to a report in the Telegraph ‘John Lewis forecasts a fragile year ahead’ and that its partner, Waitrose, outperformed them with a rise of operating profits by 15.7% to £121.1m. John Lewis’ operating profits fell by 50.9% to £20.9m. Its Waitrose’s big financial gain that cancels out John Lewis’ problem which is one of the reasons why it’s still in business – without the partnership John Lewis would have a difficult time in its trading conditions. The key person of this organisation is, quite obviously, John Lewis – the founder who set up the first store in 1864. Without him none of this would be here today. This is true; however, the whole company would fall apart if it wasn’t for the 69,000 permanent staff working all across the partnership. The activities of The John Lewis Partnership, such as trading in-store, UK call centers and online forum queries, help it to meet its aim of serving customers with flair and fairness.

I haven’t had much experience with John Lewis but I have read through a number of reviews online and it seems that they give false advertising mainly on the delivery dates for large items such as cots, washing machines and TV’s. One item said that it would take 7 days delivery however the customer ended up waiting 16 days for the item and wasn’t pleased when he rang up to complain. One other customer’s washing machine broke down after a year of purchase and she rang up asking for a replacement, which was eligible with her warranty, but she kept getting passed about to different people and having to explain her situation from scratch. She got the replacement in the end however she wasn’t pleased with the customer service and recommends not to shop in John Lewis for electrical goods. On the odd occasion that I have been to John Lewis it was only for small items, mainly fragrances, and the staff there are very helpful and seem to know a lot about their given area of work. I think, from looking at the online reviews, that John Lewis need to work on their service of delivery and call centers by giving guaranteed dates of delivery and a better system of service on the phone (maybe create accounts for each customer so that the call centers can write up the situation and have it up ready for the next operator to read through should the customer ring back at a later date).

Overall, Oxfam and John Lewis are very different organisations. Oxfam is a non-profit limited company whilst John Lewis is designed to bring in profit and is part of a partnership with other organisations. The size of Oxfam is quite large and they have 13 organisations set up over 100 countries and about 3,000 partners. John Lewis on the other hand has 69,000 permanent staff across the partnership and owns an impressive 27 John Lewis department stores. Both organisations are huge and do business on an international level. Oxfam sell mostly second hand items and a few brand new items in store and online, they cover mostly clothing but accept nearly anything that is donated. John Lewis, however, has an enormous range of items on sale and are all brand new from suppliers. The range is much vaster than Oxfam and covers anything from entertainment to clothing. John Lewis’ product range is aimed at mostly the middle class as the quality and brands are complete to a high standard. This is different to Oxfam who often accept donated products that are not in mint condition resulting in a lower class market that can pick up goods at cheap prices. That said, Oxfam don’t have many competitors and have a world re-known trust which gains them a lot of donations. For John Lewis this is a totally different story. They have a lot of competition with other big department stores such as Argos and have to make sure they are always staying competitive with their prices. John Lewis show that they are doing very well at being competitive as they have gained a profit of £1.1bn in the last financial statement, Oxfam don’t believe in keeping any profit that it makes. Instead it is invested in all of their projects – In 2008 Oxfam raised £17.1 million which is not much compared to John Lewis. John Lewis’ aim of ‘serving customers with flair and fairness’ is quite different to Oxfam’s aim of ‘working with others to overcome poverty and suffering’ but then again you would expect this as Oxfam is a charity and John Lewis needs money to survive in the competition for customers. To conclude, Oxfam and John Lewis are very different organisations set up to achieve different objectives.

References http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfam#Oxfam.27s_work http://www.oxfam.org.uk/about_us.html http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk http://www.helptheaged.org.uk/en-gb/WhatWeDo/ http://www.waitrose.com/ http://www.marshallward.co.uk/home/en/home.page?bc=6600042 http://www.debenhams.com/ http://www.somucheasier.co.uk/department-stores.html http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews56366.html The Daily Telegraph ‘John Lewis forecasts fragile year ahead’ by James Hall